my life, my pace

So you haven’t been reading my blog and you’re considering going to grad school, but you’re not sure if it’s right for you?  Well, not to fear, all you have to do is answer a few questions and you’ll have your answer.

Do you…

…enjoy being forced to look at really old figures from really old papers that you have no idea about and draw the same conclusions as said old papers written by people way more brilliant than you for entire semesters/quarters at a time?

…enjoy being put on the spot even though you haven’t the faintest idea what the hell is going on?

…enjoy looking like an idiot all of the time because you have no idea what’s going on?

…enjoy giving talks about your research that no one cares about or that isn’t going anywhere?

…enjoy spending all of your waking hours in the lab and then some?

…enjoy being at the mercy of a narcissistic/bipoloar/passive-aggressive idiot?

…enjoy doing a whole shitload of work for peanuts?

…enjoy doing said shitload of work only to have your narcissistic/bipolar/passive-aggressive idiot major professor take all the credit?

…never want to finish school because that means you’ll have to find a real job?

If you answered yes to five or more of these questions, then grad school is definitely for you.  Run, don’t walk!

Related posts:

1. inspirational music for the graduate student 2.7I've got my lab schedule down to only two days a week now. But I've come to realize that even two days is two days too many. Dealing with a passive aggressive narcissistic major professor just plain sucks. Just when I think it's okay, it's not. So my song for this week is OK Go - Here it Goes Again. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI[/youtube] Send song suggestions here....
2. inspirational music for the graduate student 1.15I am the only grad student in my lab.  I'm the only one in my office (yes, I know, I should be glad I have my own office).  I don't make friends easily.  And honestly, there's not much about the grad school experience that I find...how do I put it...interesting.  Except that it's rather isolating.  At least in med school, I had ~100 other people who I knew for a fact were going through exactly the same thing I was going through.  In grad school, I don't even know how many other people are studying what I'm studying and I know that everyone's experience is different.  Not everyone has a narcissistic major professor like me.  I cannot be sure that whoever I choose to confide in knows what the hell I'm talking about let alone sympathize, which I could count on in med school because everyone was put through the same hell (more or less).  Yes, I don't really like people and I don't care for social interaction, but this isolation is a bit much, even for me.  So my song for this week is Aimee Mann - One. Are you a grad student?  Know what it's like to be one?  Then send your song suggestions to me here....
3. what i’ve learned in grad school…Ah. Graduate school. Quite a different experience compared to medical school. Completely different. So much more laid-back. So much more relaxed. So much more boring. It’s not that it’s not challenging. It’s just so not stressful or demanding when compared to med school. But it is a totally different culture, one that I’m glad to have gotten to know and appreciate. The oft-used generalization is that PhDs think whereas MDs don’t. In that sense, I’m sure glad that I’m doing both so when some PhD wants to accuse me of being a non-thinking MD, I can fire back with, “But I have a PhD! So then what?” All kidding aside, although I find grad school a little bit dull compared to med school, I do find it useful and engaging. If it weren’t for grad school, I would still believe everything anyone tells me and every single publication I read. But thanks to grad school, I’ve learned to question everything and how to turn everything into some sort of experiment, very useful skills in my opinion!...

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